"You mean you are a Knight?"

Although Stephen managed to hide it, Jason could sense the disappointment in his tone.

"Were you expecting something more? Considering you hate the idea that I should be a Mystique Hunter?" Aiden snickered.

Just as Stephen made to reply, the sound of a notification bell rang from his computer. Clicking on the floating notification tab, a strange expression appeared on his face.

"What is it?"

"This is an assignment from Headquarters... It wants us to deal with a job.." Stephen replied.

"Really? I thought they wanted us to strictly bring Jason straight to the Bunker?"

"Well.. except someone just hacked into their database, this is an assignment from them " Stephen shrugged his shoulder.

"What did it say then?" If Aletta wasn't busy treating Jason's injuries, she would've rushed over. For Field Hunters like them, a direct assignment from the Headquarters meant higher rewards and even a chance at a promotion!

Just like every other occupation, there was a ranking amongst Mystique Hunters. Apart from the prestige, higher ranked Hunters enjoyed some rewards like guaranteed weekly payment for life. A free vacation ticket every six months and many more benefits that lower ranked Hunters like her and her brother didn't know about.

To climb up the ranks, A Hunter had to amass enough Achievement points. The simplest way to do so was completing missions from the Mission Wall on the Headquarters restricted website that could only be accessed by regulated Hunters registered and updated in the database.

These missions in simple terms were to hunt down and kill mystical beings. Apart from the reward money, completing these missions came with achievement points. For example, after submitting that Ghost Ash four days ago, Jason earned five thousand bucks and ten achievemen points.

However this amount was completely meager, considering the siblings had earned achievement points in the hundreds, yet they were only an inch close to the middle class of Hunters.

As for those high ranked Hunters, they had amassed achievement points a million and above!

However another fast way to farm achievement points was to receive and complete an assignment from the Headquarters. For example safely escorting Jason to Washington was a direct assignment from Headquarters and if the Siblings managed to complete it, they would rise up exponentially in ranks.

They had barely recovered from that one when another assignment fell on their laps. They didn't know whether to be excited at their luck, or suspicious.

"According to the gig description.. there has been constant killing in a town a hundred miles from our current location.. Garner Falls?"

"Stolen hearts? ripped out throats? is it a M.O that we recognize?"

"Scattered everywhere "

"Huh?"

"According to what I am reading, the twenty victims all exploded.. both flesh, blood and bone "

"Do I even have to close my ears now? thanks for the heads-up " Jason scoffed as his face scrunched up.

He couldn't quite understand how Stephen and Aletta could calmly discuss gore without much of a reaction.

"How long has it been going on?" Marie asked, finally wrapping up with treating Jason's injuries.

"About six days ago. The first target were a group of highschool girls from one the Town's three high schools "

"Three? that's much even for a single town " Jason mused with an upturned brow.

"Is that what you find peculiar? " Stephen rolled his eyes before giving his sister a deep look.

"You are the geek here. What do you think?"

"Many things. I can't really go into a final decision without looking through the CSI reports of the victim. Did they implode or explode? without that, it would be difficult to just predict the foe we are going up against "

"Then we are going to Garner Falls?" Jason attempted to stand on his feet.

"The hell no. I and Aletta can handle this.." Stephen immediately disagreed.

It was like he had been anticipating this statement.

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"What are you going to do to me then? shackle me up?" Jason knitted his brows in a provocative manner.

"I think it's not a bad idea for Jason to come with us " Aletta suddenly spoke up.

"You are on his side?! can't you see that he's injured?" Stephen glared at his sister disbelievingly.

"And our assignment is to protect him. How do you expect us to do so if we leave him all to his self?

.

.

"Are you sure you are in the right shape for battle?" Jason was in the midst of enjoying a silent and serene car ride when an annoying female voice rang in his head.

"So..Fia!!"

"You are angry? why are you angry?"

"Why am I angry?" James inwardly laughed self mockingly

"If you hadn't ditched me back there, I wouldn't have had my ass handed over to me. Oh wait! I also would've been in peak condition if a certain coward with a big mouth hadn't turn tail and fled like a little mice!"

Although this was a mental communication, Jason's body was throbbing intensely, almost at the verge of exploding physically.

"What did you expect me to do huh? that terrifying Xper was around. If he had sensed my existence, I would be done for!"

"You were able to sense the presence of that Xper?!" Jason was taken aback.

Although he was beaten down, he had still witnessed what transpired between the little Xper kid and the Malevolent

Not even a powerful Malevolent like her managed to sense the presence of the Xper.. yet Sofia managed to do so?!

"I heard his footsteps okay?" she added after a while.

"Plus you shouldn't start blaming me now. I remember how a certain someone boasted they were not counting on receiving my help.. oh wait! you were that person Princess!"

"I gave you half of my mystique coins! how dare you eat my meal and just wipe your mouth clean?!"

"You call four hundred a meal? I barely recovered from using Union twice, even after consuming that four hundred mystique coins. If anything, I am the one losing out in this little partnership of ours!" Sofia retorted.

"Don't you dare complain! you shouldn't even be asking me for any renumeration considering I saved your ass from that Malevolent. If anything you should be grateful and swear your life to me!" Jason harrumphed.

"Hello?" he suddenly sensed Sofia go silent. No matter how many times he called out to her, she never responded.

"B*tch!" he cussed inwardly

"The day I am going to stop depending on her would be one of great celebration!" he sighed helplessly as he stared at his current stats on the System Panel screen..

—[HOST INFO]

—Name: Jason Chris

—Alias: J.C

—Titles: None

—Race: ¢§%£~¥€^¢¥√£€^^¢¥ππ√€^¥

—[COMBAT]

—Charm Stats: Locked

—ARMOR

—Locked (100,000 mystique coins to unlock) (99,600 more Mystique Coins to unlock)

—[Missions]

—None

—[Mystique Coins]

—400

—[Tools]

—Void Vial (fully awakened)

—Sprite Pupil (fully awakened)

—Daggers Of Cain (lv1) +

—[Inventory]

—Void Vial

—Sprite Pupil

—Daggers Of Cain

.

.

"Ninety nine thousand six hundred? with the rate at which I gain Mystique Coins and my current abilities, It would take years for me to achieve such a milestone"

As much as Jason hated to admit, the current him was weak. For example he had been silently observing the siblings battle with the Crocotta back at Sallyville. Even with the Klypt daggers, Jason wouldn't get the chance to stab it into the Crocotta before the other party ripped out his throat!

He had to increase his physical attributes if he wanted to have a real fighting chance against mystical beings like the Crocotta and Malevolents and Jason had an innate feeling that the system's armor was his biggest shot..

However unlocking it right now was a pipe dream. He needed to find one way or the other to temporarily level the playing field and as much as he also hated to admit, Sofia and the Union transformation was his only shot!

Damnit! Why was getting strong so frustrating?! why couldn't he be like those light novel MCs who could just level up after killing their first monster?!